Long Term Evolution (LTE) is a sophisticated, 4th generation wireless communication network protocol promulgated by the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP). The primary LTE Radio Access Network (RAN) is the Evolved Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS) Terrestrial RAN, or E-UTRAN. License Assisted Access (LAA) is a technology adopted by 3GPP to standardize operation of the LTE protocol in unlicensed spectrum, such as the 5 GHz band populated by Wireless Local Area Networks (WLAN) such as those conforming to the IEEE 802.11x protocols, commonly known as “Wi-Fi.” It is anticipated that future radio network devices, known as User Equipment (UE) in LTE, will operate in both types of networks. As used herein, the term “UE” refers to any radio network device operative in the LTE network, whether or not it has a “user,” e.g., including Machine-to-Machine (M2M) devices, Narrowband Internet of Things (NB-IoT) devices, laptop or tablet computers, and the like.
Current Wi-Fi enabled devices usually probe Wi-Fi frequencies with a periodicity—e.g., approximately once per second—to find suitable Access Points (AP), such as Wi-Fi cells, for mobility and/or multipath data traffic, such as utilizing Multipath Transmission Control Protocol (Multipath TCP). Currently, neither 3GPP nor IEEE 802.11x specifications provide for measurements of, or access to, the other domain. Since the UE must remain connected to the LTE network and respond to any signaling directed to it, current Wi-Fi enabled UEs require two separate radio “front ends.” As used herein, a radio front end is a portion of the device's receiver circuitry (which may include, e.g., antennas, RF filters, low-noise amplifiers, and the like) upstream of the radio modem circuits. One radio front end is required for LTE communications and another for the WLAN measurements and connectivity, as depicted in FIG. 1. This requirement of dual radio front ends increases the size, cost, and complexity of the UE, and increases its power consumption, in turn decreasing the useful life between battery recharges.
The Background section of this document is provided to place embodiments of the present invention in technological and operational context, to assist those of skill in the art in understanding their scope and utility. Unless explicitly identified as such, no statement herein is admitted to be prior art merely by its inclusion in the Background section.